Field of the Disclosure
The embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for a fastening system having differentiable components that prevent the use of the incorrect fastening components to secure together two or more parts.
Description of the Related Art
A fastening system may be used to selectively connect together two or more components or parts. The system may include a fuse pin and a receiver that where inserted together selectively connect together two or more components. The fuse pin may be configured to shear upon the application of a predetermined force in an effort to prevent damage to other components of a system. For example, a fuse pin configured to shear upon the application of a predetermined force may connect a gear beam to a dog house mounted to a spur of an aircraft. If the aircraft has a particularly hard landing or the landing gear impacts an object, the fuse pin is configured to shear if the load is at or above a predetermined amount. The shearing of the fuse pin may prevent other components from being damaged due to the hard landing and/or impact. For example, the shearing of the fuse pin may help to prevent damage to the fuel box on the wing of the aircraft.
The use of fuse pins to connect aircraft components is known. However, a first model of an aircraft may use a first fuse pin configured to shear at a first predetermined load and a second model of an aircraft may use a second fuse pin configured to shear at a second predetermined load, which differs from the first predetermined load. Although the first and second fuse pins are configured to shear on different loads, the visual appearance may be similar, which potentially could lead to the installation of the wrong fuse pin in an aircraft. Alternatively, the wrong fuse pin could be installed into an aircraft by mistake even if the fuse pins differ in appearance. The installation of the wrong fuse pin into an aircraft system may be problematic as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art. For example, a wrong fuse pin may shear at a lower load than intended or may not shear when intended. Thus, it would be beneficial to prevent the insertion of the wrong fuse pin into the receiver of a fastener system.